EHS Wildcats lose to Clearwater Indians

The host of regional baseball went out in the first night of competition in a tough 5-1 loss at the hands of the #2 seeded Clearwater Indians.

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By Josh Prim

Butler County Times Gazette

By Josh Prim

Posted May. 14, 2013 at 4:00 PM

By Josh Prim

Posted May. 14, 2013 at 4:00 PM

The host of regional baseball went out in the first night of competition in a tough 5-1 loss at the hands of the #2 seeded Clearwater Indians.

The Indians took an early lead in the bottom of the first when Brandon Cotter scored from third as the Wildcats had another Indian caught in a run down between first and second base.

Clearwater loaded the bases but Kyle Macy came back with two strikeouts to limit the damage to just one run in the first.

Mistakes in the field plagued the Wildcats again as Cotter scored on a throwing error in the second to give the Indians a 2-0 advantage after two innings. The Wildcats at the plate had struck out 5 times in the first six outs of the game.

From their both starting pitchers settled in on the bump, Kyle Macy had 8 strikeouts in the first four innings of work, Clearwater's Chad Reibenspies had 8 punchouts as well.

Riebenspies had a no hitter until the fifth inning when Trevor Crain hit a frozen rope to left field to break up the no-no, Crain stole second base and advanced to third on a passed ball.

After a walk by Easton Smith, Zac Ruff just missed on a three-run shot to left field but was deep enough to score Crain from third on the sacrifice fly from third base to cut the Indian lead in half at 2-1.

Clearwater answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to push their advantage to 4-1 before Macy added three more strikeouts to end the inning.

Clearwater added some more insurance in the sixth with a two out double by Riley Budd to score Reibenspies, Macy again added three strikeouts in the inning.

Down to their final three outs of the season, Easton Smith singled and Ruff singled with two outs before a tough strikeout ended the Wildcats threat and season.

Macy though taking the lose was stellar finishing with 14 strikeouts in six innings of work.

Clearwater moves on to play Augusta Wednesday in the second regional semifinal.